When I first came to Nashville, people hardly gave country music any respect. We lived in old cars and dirty hotels, and we ate when we could.

Lynn is recalling the early, precarious years of her career and using them to underline how marginal country music—and its working musicians—once were in the broader entertainment world. The details (sleeping in cars, “dirty hotels,” irregular meals) evoke the hardscrabble touring economy that shaped many mid‑century country performers, contrasting sharply with the later mainstream success of the genre. The quote also functions as a quiet claim to authenticity: her perspective comes from lived hardship rather than retrospective mythmaking. Implicitly, it critiques cultural snobbery toward country music while honoring the resilience and solidarity required to build a career when respect, money, and stability were scarce.